(Reuters) — Members of Dakota Plains Cooperative in North Dakota have approved a merger with top U.S. farmer co-op CHS Inc.
The merger will take place Jan. 1, pending approval by the CHS board, the companies said in a statement earlier this month.
It was approved in late September by 92 percent of Dakota Plains members, they said.
The companies did not release financial details.
Dakota Plains operates 15 facilities in central and southeastern North Dakota, offering farmers agronomy and grain marketing services and energy, seed and feed products.
The merger would expand CHS’s presence in the country’s largest spring wheat producing state, which has seen corn and soybean production rise in recent years, mostly in the fertile Red River Valley in eastern North Dakota.
The companies said in August that plans under discussion included construction of three new fertilizer plants.
The pending merger is the latest deal in a broader wave of consolidation across the global agribusiness sector dominated by the larger ABCD companies: Archer Daniels Midland Co., Bunge Ltd, Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus Corp.
